Re: Backfiring vs Timing

Posted by Mike Flanagan on September 07, 1997 at 00:19:29

In Reply to: Backfiring vs Timing
posted by Walter Cruden on September 06, 1997 at 21:52:37

My guess is that you were not actually in the timing indent. It is sometimes pretty hard to find. Especially if the timing pin is one of the blunt ones. Use the same pencil and bring the piston to TDC and stick a scratch awl or some other relatively sharp instrument in the hole and probe for the indent. If no cigar rotate 180 degrees and look again. You should find it in there somewhere . I doubt if the gears are installed wrong and don't even recall if this is possible although I wouldn't logically see why not and I'm to lazy to go out and investigate. However if it were as much as a full tooth off the engine would barely run. Sounds like it is just out of time. If you never find an indent then stick your thumb over the number one spark plug hole and crank until you begin to get buildup of pressure under the thumb. Now carefully bring the piston to TDC and time the ignition. Should run good.
God speed under 50.
The Model A Fool.
: Enjoyed a ride to the post office in a friend's Model A except it backfired and had no power to climb hill.He was not adjusting the spark manually for changing conditions but even when he did he still experienced the backfire out the exhaust.We followed the "instruction book" manually locating the dimple on the front gear through the timining hole.The distributor rotor pointed to the number one contact and the manual spark advance was fully retarded.But using a pencil through the spark plug opening indicated that the piston was down, not fully up.So the cylinder would fire when the piston was down rather that starting down or ATDC.To me that says that the timing chain or timing gear is not properly aligned between the crank shaft and the valve cam shaft.I base this on working with modern cars.Is the analysis true also for a Model A?I can't give any more details because he wanted to stop and eat diner, so we closed it up.

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